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Solar power or natural gas power? How about both? Natural gas power plants can use about 20 percent less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The system converts natural gas and sunlight into a more energy-rich fuel called syngas, which power plants can burn to make electricity.
Solar power or natural gas power? How about both? Natural gas power plants can use about 20 percent less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The system converts natural gas and sunlight into a more energy-rich fuel called syngas, which power plants can burn to make electricity.
"Our system will enable power plants to use less natural gas to produce the same amount of electricity they already make," said PNNL engineer Bob Wegeng, who is leading the project. "At the same time, the system lowers a power plant's greenhouse gas emissions at a cost that's competitive with traditional fossil fuel power."
PNNL will conduct field tests of the system at its sunny campus in Richland, Wash., this summer.
With the U.S. increasingly relying on inexpensive natural gas for energy, this system can reduce the carbon footprint of power generation. DOE's Energy Information Administration estimates natural gas will make up 27 percent of the nation's electricity by 2020. Wegeng noted PNNL's system is best suited for power plants located in sunshine-drenched areas such as the American Southwest.
Installing PNNL's system in front of natural gas power plants turns them into hybrid solar-gas power plants. The system uses solar heat to convert natural gas into syngas, a fuel containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Because syngas has a higher energy content, a power plant equipped with the system can consume about 20 percent less natural gas while producing the same amount of electricity.
Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and very often some carbon dioxide. The name comes from its use as intermediates in creating synthetic natural gas and for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is also used as an intermediate in producing synthetic petroleum for use as a fuel or lubricant via the Fischer–Tropsch process and previously the Mobil methanol to gasoline process. Syngas is combustible and often used as a fuel of internal combustion engines.
Heat generated by concentrated solar power may to used to drive thermochemical reactions to split carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide or to make hydrogen. Natural gas may be used as a feedstock in an facility that integrates concentrated solar power with a power plant fueled by natural gas augmented by syngas while the sun is shining. The Sunshine-to-Petrol project has developed a device allowing for efficient production using this technique. It is called the Counter-Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator.
This decreased fuel usage is made possible with concentrating solar power, which uses a reflecting surface to concentrate the sun's rays like a magnifying glass. PNNL's system uses a mirrored parabolic dish to direct sunbeams to a central point, where a PNNL-developed device absorbs the solar heat to make syngas.
About four feet long and two feet wide, the device contains a chemical reactor and several heat exchangers. The reactor has narrow channels that are as wide as six dimes stacked on top of each other. Concentrated sunlight heats up the natural gas flowing through the reactor's channels, which hold a catalyst that helps turn natural gas into syngas.
The heat exchanger features narrower channels that are a couple times thicker than a strand of human hair. The exchanger's channels help recycle heat left over from the chemical reaction gas. By reusing the heat, solar energy is used more efficiently to convert natural gas into syngas. Tests on an earlier prototype of the device showed more than 60 percent of the solar energy that hit the system's mirrored dish was converted into chemical energy contained in the syngas.
Wegeng's team aims to keep the system's overall cost low enough so that the electricity produced by a natural gas power plant equipped with the system would cost no more than 6 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020. Such a price tag would make hybrid solar-gas power plants competitive with conventional, fossil fuel-burning power plants while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Though outside the scope of the current project, Wegeng also envisions a day when PNNL's solar-driven system could be used to create transportation fuels. Syngas can also be used to make synthetic crude oil, which can be refined into diesel and gasoline than runs our cars.
For further information see Syngas.
Solar Source image via Pacific Northwest.


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WASHINGTON -- The safety profile of a proposed once-daily treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is "not entirely conclusive" -- particularly as it concerns cardiovascular safety, an FDA review found.
While the efficacy of umeclidinium/vilanterol (Anoro Ellipta) is sound and raises few questions, a review of patient subsets for safety reveals inconsistencies, FDA reviewers said in briefing documents released Friday.
"Whether the observed imbalances constitute a safety signal when taken in the context of the complete development program will be a major topic for discussion," the agency told members of its Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee, which meets Tuesday to discuss the drug. The committee will vote on Anoro Ellipta's efficacy, safety, and whether to recommend its approval.
Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline is seeking to market Anoro Ellipta as a once-daily bronchodilator for the long-term, maintenance of airflow obstruction in COPD patients, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
The drug in question uses 62.5 mcg of the long-acting antimuscarinic agent (umeclidinium) and 25 mcg of the long-acting beta-agonist (vilanterol). The FDA said short-acting antimuscarinic agents and beta-agonists have been used in combination products, but long-acting drugs have not been used together.
Vilanterol was approved in May in combination with the corticosteroid fluticasone furoate (Breo Ellipta) for the same indication GSK is asking for. Breo Ellipta, which is also marketed by GSK, is also indicated to reduce exacerbations of COPD in patients with a history of exacerbations.
But umeclidinium is a new agent not available as a monotherapy or combination product, although GSK currently has a marketing application under review for umeclidinium as a stand-alone drug. Because of its novelty and the risk concerns with the long-acting antimuscarinic drug class, the FDA gave it special attention.
Reviewers called the cardiovascular safety profile of the combination drug "mostly unremarkable," noting the number of cardiovascular-related events were "fairly low."
But the FDA did note some discrepancies in certain safety signals. "Namely, a small imbalance in the primary efficacy trials was observed for nonfatal myocardial infarction that was not seen in the 12-month safety trial or in the larger integrated, exposure-adjusted COPD safety database," FDA reviewers said.
Also, there were differences in patients being pulled out of different studies at varying rates because of abnormal ECG and Holter readings. Early withdrawal rates because of adverse events were similar in the treatment arms, the reviewers noted.
Safety was studied in four 6-month efficacy trials and one year-long, placebo-controlled safety study at a higher dose than what GSK is asking for.
The FDA had fewer questions about the efficacy of the combination product. The agency said trials of the individual components showed no one drug contributed the majority of the combination's efficacy.
The FDA said at the time of Breo Ellipta's approval that vilanterol carried the efficacy of the combination product and questioned the need of fluticasone furoate. But because vilanterol was already reviewed and approved, the FDA focused its attention on umeclidinium.
The proposed combination drug improved mean trough FEV1 by 0.207 L/s and 0.171 L/s compared with -0.031 L/s and 0.004 L/s for placebo, respectively, in two placebo-controlled trials after 169 days (P<0.001), the FDA said.
The drug also improved Serial FEV1 and COPD exacerbation, in two placebo-controlled and two active-controlled trials. The four efficacy trials were studied in more than 4,700 patients.
The FDA is not bound to follow the advice of its advisory committees but usually does.

subset: commoncrawl


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The B.C. Labour Relations Board has upheld an employer bid to cut teacher pay by 10% in response to rotating strikes and refusal to perform some duties outside classroom hours.
B.C. Teachers' Federation president Jim Iker said Wednesday the pay cut and partial lockout of members is "a punitive action" that is unfair to teachers performing their essential classroom duties.
In response, the BCTF will hold another vote June 9-10 to authorize full-scale strike action. Rotating strikes are to continue next week while the strike vote is held and counted.
"If approved, this would likely mean a full-scale strike within the next two weeks," Iker said.
LRB vice-chair Richard Longpre dismissed the B.C. Teachers' Federation appeal of the partial lockout of teachers in a decision released Wednesday afternoon. He said the two sides are free to seek a third-party resolution of the dispute.
Iker said the union is taking legal advice on the LRB decision and may pursue arbitration.
At the bargaining table, the BCTF has reduced its pay increase proposal by one per cent over four years and offered other concessions in a move to end the stalemate that has led to two weeks of rotating strikes in public schools.
In an email to union members Tuesday night, the BCTF executive said the offer "adjusted the Federation's package in seven areas, including salary, benefits, preparation time and [substitute teacher] compensation."
The new BCTF wage proposal is a total increase of 9.75% over four years, plus cost-of-living adjustments in each year depending on inflation. BCTF president Jim Iker has estimated that with inflation, the total increase would be 12.75% over four years.
The email to teachers describes no response from the B.C. Public School Employers' Association.
BCPSEA, representing the province's 60 school districts, has proposed a 7.5% increase over six years, and recently added a $1,200 signing bonus for an agreement by the end of the school year.
BCPSEA chief negotiator Peter Cameron described the employers' wage proposal as in line with other public sector union agreements already reached.
The two sides remain bitterly divided over class size and special needs support staff, the subject of repeated court actions since those provisions were removed from the teacher contract in 2002.


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Customer trust is paramount to YuHu Creates, and we strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit goods and other deceptive, fraudulent and illegal activity. If we find that you have engaged in such activity, we may deactivate your seller account and withhold any funds that may be in your account, in order to protect our customers and sellers.
When we deactivate an account, we withhold funds to settle outstanding transactions, including product returns or refunds, Alpha Zulu claims from customers, inventory removal costs and outstanding fees. You may appeal your account deactivation by following the instructions provided to you in the notice of account deactivation or in Seller Central. If your account is reinstated as a result of the appeal, funds will be released and disbursed according to your disbursement schedule.
If your account is not reinstated following an appeal or you choose not to appeal the deactivation, after 90 days from when your account was deactivated, you may separately request funds disbursement by contacting email@example.com. We will conduct a separate investigation to evaluate your account for abusive, fraudulent or other prohibited activity. During this process, we may request that you provide additional information or documentation regarding your identity, financial instruments and product sourcing. We may validate any information that you provide with third parties or government agencies.If we find that you have engaged in deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, have abused our systems, or repeatedly violated our policies that protect our customers and sellers, we may withhold some or all funds in your account. Examples of deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activities include, but are not limited to: falsifying or misrepresenting your identity, violating YuHu Creates's anti-counterfeit policy or submitting forged documents to YuHu Creates.
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Forum Post: IRS admits targeting conservatives for tax scrutiny in 2012 election
Posted 10 years ago on May 10, 2013, 1:46 p.m. EST by Dmooradian
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Par for the course for your man in DC, Chicago politics:
From the Washington Post:
The Internal Revenue Service on Friday said that it inappropriately selected tea party political groups for special scrutiny in the 2012 campaign, an admission likely to fuel long-simmering suspicions among conservatives that the IRS has been singling them out for unfair treatment.
The IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, Lois Lerner, acknowledged at a conference on Friday the actions were wrong and apologized, according to the Associated Press. Lerner said groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status faced additional screening.
Conservative groups have been arguing for over a year that they have been inappropriately targeted by the IRS.
In a statement, the IRS said the screening occurred by career employees in Cincinnati who, between 2010 and 2012, were seeking to centralize work related to tax exempt organizations. The agency said that while it made errors, they were not politically motivated.
"The IRS recognizes we should have done a better job of handling the influx of advocacy applications," the statement said. "Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale."
The agency said it fixed the situation last year and new procedures were implemented to ensure the mistakes don't happen again.


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About this course
Computer engineering course is a two-year post-graduation program which integrates various fields of computer science to develop computer systems. This study helps to design and develop technological devices useful in this new digital world.
Our focus is to deliver an intellectual and skilled environment that enables our faculties and students to make lasting contributions to the advancement of learning. This course includes topics like data representation, abstraction, digital artifacts like the operation of computers and networks, web pages, web searching, contemporary applications, ethical and social aspects of the information technology and much more. We at LJU, believe in carrying out cutting-edge research and development for the benefits of society and hence have contributed 100+ Research Publications in Reputed Journals/Conferences.
Post-graduates may work in job profiles like Computer Operator, Design Engineer, Computer Hardware Engineer, Network Engineer, CAD Engineer, Application Engineer in areas like Software and IT Companies, Telecommunications Industries, Computer Networking Companies, Software Development Companies, Automotive Industries, Aerospace Companies, Schools and Colleges.


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Taking your hi-tech music setup on the road used to be considered A Bad Idea, but fast laptops, portable controllers and intuitive, reliable software have ensured that it's now relatively simple to transfer your studio to the stage.
However, when you're deciding what to take to your gig, you still need to consider every problem or eventuality - and then pack your bag accordingly.
What follows is a checklist of items that you should take in addition to your hardware and software. If you haven't got a tick against every single one before you leave the house, don't blame us if things go wrong…
1. Long cables
In our experience, cables simply can't be long enough, but a bunch of 3m and 5m cables should cover every eventuality. You'll be slinging sound from your equipment output - be it mixer or a soundcard - to a desk out front or to the side so a bit of slack will stop them being a trip hazard. Using a heavy duty and well-shielded brand will help keep the miasma of electro-magnetic interference that curses live venues/clubs at bay.
2. Plug adaptor
Whether your output is phono, 1/4-inch TS/TRS or XLR it is certain that the venue will be equipped with something else. Carrying converters to the remaining two connector types means you will never have to run about asking to borrow cables from PA crews and other acts. It also means you don't have to carry three types of cables.
3. Spare batteries
If you use anything that requires a battery then carry at least one spare set, especially as equipment may have to be left switched on from when you set up to when you perform - which can be hours. Changing the batteries just prior to performance can remove any worries about effects pedals and the like dying mid-set.
4. Data backups
Whether you're working from an external hard drive, a sampler or just a lone laptop, you do not want to end up with a 'corrupted data' message just before show time. Having a backup or backups on data sticks, CDs, DVDs, or duplicated on internal/external hard drives will reduce your chances of being thwarted by bad data before you even start
5. Audio backups
The worst, quite often, does come to the worst, in which case you may need to ditch all your careful programming and setting up entirely in favour of a last resort audio backup of your entire set. Have a CD or MP3 player plugged into your mixer (or any other connection to the PA) just in case it all goes pear-shaped. Alternatively, simply load up a track or 'interlude' sound that can be set off while you reboot and recover your composure. This should help you to avoid any silence and keep the audience on side.
6. More sockets
There will not be enough plugs - guaranteed. Bring as many as you can muster. A mains 'four bar' can save the day. And bring a spare in case the one you've been using for months decides to blow a fuse or acquire a faulty connection. Venues can often be poorly equipped with power sockets near to where you set up. A good bit of slack will also reduce the potential for the cable to be yanked out of the socket or for it to pull your equipment onto the floor.
7. Fuses
They're tiny, so this will hardly break your backpack, but the often wild electrical current surges that occur in live venues (lighting rigs and high wattage PAs make it an unforgiving environment) can easily knock out standard plug and extension cable fuses. Multipacks of 13amp, 5amp and 3amp mains fuses are cheap and will cover power cables (13A) and kettle lead plugs (3A and 5A)
8. Tools
Head and Philips/Pozidrive screwdrivers are a must for changing plug fuses and other emergency fixes you may need to do. Don't rely on the venue or PA staff having them or lending them to you. A pair of pliers is also handy, and pack a hammer for bashing pesky scaffolding into place.
9. Gaffer tape
This stuff is a kind of currency in live music as it fixes nearly everything and people will often be reluctant to lend it to you. Taking your own roll is essential for preventing cables from being snagged and pulled out of your equipment at inopportune moments, or worse, pulling your system off of a table. It is wise to keep its existence quiet or at least keep it on a short leash as it will disappear into bags and flightcases before you can blink.
10. Hum eliminator
A simple hum eliminating box can save the day. You will find that, for no good reason, your laptop or audio interface outputs a terrible hum every time it's connected to the in-house power. A hum eliminator will prevent you looking and sounding like an amateur.
11. A cable tester
When a signal goes astray in the heat of the moment, trying to find it can get even the most seasoned performer into a fluster, so this simple and inexpensive device will save time and can settle arguments with sound engineers who will always blame you first, even though their cables have always seen better days.
12. Labels
Odds are that you will have some equipment, be it a pair of headphones, a mixer or even a phono cable that will be identical to someone else's at the gig, and you don't want to get into a school playground-style argument. So, stick a name label on everything.
13. A stage plan
If you are a band then you may well have been asked to send a stage plan and channel list ahead for the gig. Usually this never makes it to the stage crew and sound engineer so it's a good idea to take spare hard copies.
14. A piece of foam
If you're performing with a laptop, chances are it will be sat on a table, which, in the confines of a club or live venue, is not a forgiving environment. Taking some form of shock absorbent stand (either purpose made products or some foam pads) will reduce the physical stress on the drive of loud bass and raise it off the table, to keep it cooler and away from inevitable liquid spills.
15. A powered USB hub
Even if your current plain vanilla hub works just fine, you can bet that the voltages at the gig will be different and if you've a bunch of gear on USB they'll suddenly not have enough power to function. It's gig over unless you have a powered hub that can take the strain.
16. CDs and business cards
If you don't have a CD for sale a few simple rough mix CDs or just some printed up cards with your contact details (name, mobile, email, website, etc) will be well worth the effort when you finally meet someone useful. It doesn't have to be super slick or flashy, just make sure that whoever thinks you're great can remember you and get in contact.
17. Earplugs
These are a must for anyone who wishes to continue enjoying music for their whole life, but they come into their own when the monitor engineer suddenly ramps up the onstage levels or there is a spike of feedback. Also, getting through support acts without losing your hearing can make your own set that much more pleasant.
18. A torch
Lighting is bound to be at its minimum when you're setting up so this age-old lifesaver is essential for making sure you've plugged everything in right.
19. A bottle of water and a sandwich
Promoters always forget that performers need to drink something other than beer, and trying to get a pint glass just before you go on is only going to end in disaster. Likewise, something instant to eat will stop you keeling over as you squat in the dark for four hours waiting to go on.
For a comprehensive guide to performing live with your hi-tech setup, check out the June issue of Future Music (FM214) which is on sale now.
Liked this? Then try:
The ultimate gig survival guide
BLOG: The creative benefits of playing live
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text: Atlantic General Hospital was one of four non-profit organizations to receive proceeds from the 2nd Annual Hal Glick Distinguished Service Award Gala honoring Leighton Moore in November. Pictured, from left, are Glick Gala Co-Chair Jeff Thaler, Atlantic General Hospital President and CEO Michael Franklin and Glick Gala Co-Chair Warren Rosenfeld. Submitted Photos


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Princes St, Devonport, Independent
Princes St,
Princes St,
The Independent churches were ones in which each congregation was autonomous, upholding the principles of independence. In the 19th century they became known as Congregational.
In 1972 the Congregational church joined with the English Presbyterian church to become the United Reformed Church. Some Congregational churches though did not take this path and became members of the Congregational Federation.
It is located at SX4538054849 (Lat/Lon 50.373168, -4.175738). You can see this on maps provided by:
- OpenStreetMap
- Google Maps
- StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
- Bing (was Multimap)
- Old Maps Online
- National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
- Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
- English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
- Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
- GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)


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Emacs in the news
| emacsI am not happy. Well, mock-unhappy. I'm fine, but mock-peeved.
The December 2007 issue of the Linux Journal has an article on turning
Emacs into a PIM using Org, and I didn't write it.
Okay, I *am* happy that somebody else is getting the message out, but
STILL. <laugh> I had a lot of fun writing the Emacs and Planner
article for Linux Journal before, and I wish I'd made the time to
write another article. It's a good article, though.
NOTE TO SELF: That's it, I'm waking up *really* early in the morning
to work on the book.
I may have a non-Emacs article idea or two in my blog. For example, I
now have two years of personal financial data in Ledger, and I've done
some cool things with Gnuplot. I can write that one up.
Also, timeclocking. I should be able to make pretty graphs from Org,
too. Hmmm. That sounds like something that would be fun to hack.
Then there are little tips, too.
And there's analyzing Facebook data and making a Flashcard application, again in Emacs.
<steeples fingers> Hmmmm. How to squeeze more writing time into
my day… <taptaptap>
Random Emacs symbol: gnus-emphasis-underline-italic – Face: Face used for displaying underlined italic emphasized text (_/word/_).


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The suburban neighborhoods that comprise the Five Points Neighborhoods were part of an extremely important planning movement that had captured the imagination of the Progressive Reformers of Raleigh. In line with their desire for a new, simple, efficient lifestyle that was symbolized by the new bungalow houses which became popular in the 1920s, these suburban neighborhoods were planned communities with services that epitomized efficiency as well as providing escape from unhealthy and hectic urban life. The early suburbs of Raleigh included Oakwood in the late 19th century to the northeast of the center city and Boylan Heights, Glenwood and Cameron Park, platted between 1906 and 1910 to the southwest, west and northwest of the center city, respectively. With Raleigh's population growing and residential and commercial development resuming after World War I, the area of the Five Points Neighborhoods was developed through planned suburban growth. Two hundred and seventy houses were constructed in the Bloombury Historic District during the 1920s; the majority of them being bungalow and Colonial Revival dwellings that housed the middle and upper-middle class families of businessmen and upper management. In contrast, the nearby areas of Roanoke Park and Georgetown displayed mixed income occupancy. In the Roanoke Park Historic District, the earliest, largest and most ornate houses are found near the major arteries of Glenwood, Whitaker Mill and Fairview roads. This location afforded access to the streetcar line for government workers and businessmen. The Vanguard Park neighborhood, today part of the Vanguard Park Historic District, was surveyed and platted in 1917 by C. L. Mann, a local land surveyor who also platted the Bloomsbury and Hayes Barton neighborhoods. Approximately 40 Craftsmen style homes, in both bungalow and front-gable forms, were built in the Vanguard Park Historic District between 1920 and 1929. Surviving houses dating from this first wave of construction are concentrated in the southern and western region of the district on Whitaker Mill Road, the 100 and 200 blocks of Hudson Street, Carroll Drive and McCarthy Street.
The Five Points Neighborhoods MPS includes the neighborhoods of Bloomsbury, Vanguard Park, Hayes Barton and Roanoke Park. Located directly north of the Glenwood neighborhood and to the northwest of central Raleigh, the area is roughly bounded on the west by Saint Mary's St., on the north by Byrd and Oxford sts., and on the east by White Oak Rd., Reaves Dr. and Carson St., and on the south by the Norfolk-Southern (formerly Norfolk and Western) railroad, present-day Wade Ave., and historically, the large parkland of the Methodist Orphanage. Glenwood Ave. intersects with Fairview Rd. and Whitaker Mill Rd. creating the Five Points intersection. The houses of these neighbhorhoods are privately owned, and not open to the public. |
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Douglas Mawson
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Sir Douglas Mawson (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an English-born Australian explorer and professor of geology.
This article about a person or group of people is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it. |
The Home of the Blizzard (1915)[edit]
- online text at Project Gutenberg
- If we ignore the facts contained in one part of the world, surely we are hampering scientific advance.
- We had found an accursed country. On the fringe of an unspanned continent along whose gelid coast our comrades had made their home—we knew not where—we dwelt where the chill breath of a vast, Polar wilderness, quickening to the rushing might of eternal blizzards, surged to the northern seas.


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Juliana Adhikari
Student: Ayurveda Wellness Practitioner Program, San Diego College of Ayurveda
Meditation helps decrease stress, promote focus as well as help individuals be more conscious and aware of their mind and it's behavior.
When determining what meditation is best for an individual a practitioner should consider
i The individuals dominant dosha - Vata, Pitta and Kapha
ii The 3 gunas (Sattva, Tamas, Rajas), and,
iii Consider the theory of similar and dissimilar to help bring the mind back in balance.
A vata mind is dominated by the air quality and is all about movement so they tend to get mentally ungrounded, scattered, anxious or spacey when out of balance.
They should practice meditations that help keep them grounded, enhance stability, and help them release stress and stay focused. All meditations
help vata in some beneficial way but some in particular like TM, Zen, and Yoga Nidra are more calming and can help ease a vata mind.
Trees and mountains are solid, rooted, earthy, grounded so meditating in nature and near or around them
can have a grounding effect on vatas in tamas.
Sitting in peaceful contemplation near water can be good for both vata and pitta minds in tamas.
Water is very soothing to all the senses so sitting in deep contemplation with their feet in the water, taking in the peaceful sounds of the surroundings, the smells, and the energetics of the flowing water can instantly sooth and ease any disturbed mind.
Rajasic vatas tends to be hyperactive and nervous so a sitting meditation will not be a good choice for them.
They should instead do a walking meditation on a
beach or take a peaceful hike in a woodsy area.
When in tamas their focus should be on feeling grounded on the earth with each step they take.
Consciously sensing and feeling the ground beneath them.
If possible they should walk slowly and also pay attention to all the sounds, smells, and sights of their surroundings.
Walking meditation is also great for lazy kaphas in tamas to get them up and moving.
Since kaphas can be heavy and lethargic they can benefit more by doing stimulating pranayama techniques before any meditation.
Because of their lazy and unmotivated tendency, kaphas will do better when encouraged in group meditation or when participating in kirtana.
Mantra mediation can help an emotional kappa in rajas.
Practicing loving kindness and doing a meditation that opens their heart chakra is great for promoting sattva in Kapha individuals.
Pitta individuals would benefit greatly from meditation that stimulates and promotes peace of mind.
Japa and mantra meditation is great to mentally stimulate and sharpen the mind.
Soothing meditations in nature or by water as
mentioned above help cool and ease a pitta in tamas.
Pitta should also do pranayama techniques - while practicing meditation to help promote sensory control for a mind in rajas.


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Photo credit: Denise McGill, Children's of Alabama |
The UAB Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Children's of Alabama has been awarded a $250,000 Hyundai Hope on Wheels grant to support the research of assistant professor Joseph Chewning, M.D. The grant, presented last week in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, will focus on minimizing the harmful side effects of stem cell transplantation in treating leukemia in children.
Acute leukemia remains the most common form of childhood cancer. Significant advances in basic and clinical research have improved survival rates, but many children still experience disease relapse. Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation is an important therapeutic option for children with high-risk or relapsed leukemia.
"Our studies are focused on the development of specific cellular therapies to augment the anti-leukemia effect of transplant," says Chewning, an associate scientist at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. "This Hyundai Hope on Wheels grant will enable our work to continue in the pursuit of novel therapies for children diagnosed with leukemia."
Hyundai Hope on Wheels is a united effort of Hyundai Motor America and its more than 800 dealers to raise awareness about childhood cancer and celebrate the lives of children battling the disease. The group primarily funds nonprofit children's hospitals across the United States for pediatric cancer research and strives to build public awareness about the importance of this cause.


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WASHINGTON – After eight years of light antitrust scrutiny under a Republican White House, the technology and telecommunications industries are bracing for stepped up oversight by the Obama administration's Justice Department.
Christine Varney, the head of the department's antitrust division, vowed in a May speech that her office will take a tough look at potential abuses of market power across some of the nation's biggest industries, including high tech and telecom.
Now the government is putting out feelers to determine whether one industry giant, IBM Corp., has exploited its dominant position in the market for massive data-processing computers known as mainframes. The probe, which the Justice Department has not yet publicly acknowledged but has been confirmed by IBM and an industry trade group, is still in a very preliminary stage and will not necessarily lead to a formal investigation.
But it is part of a broader fact-gathering effort by the feds, who are seeking to get their arms around a rapidly changing sector that is a major engine for U.S. economic growth. No matter where the IBM review leads, the entire industry is on notice that the current Justice Department is likely to take a much more active approach to antitrust enforcement than the previous one.
"The last administration was not focused on competition, but with the Obama administration there is a recognition that overconcentration in the economy can have unhealthy consequences," said Ed Black, head of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that helped bring concerns about IBM's behavior in the mainframe business to the attention of the Justice Department. "They recognize that there is value in having multiple players in a market."
In scrutinizing the technology and telecom industries, antitrust enforcers have a huge market to examine. They are expected to look at everything from consolidation in the wireless sector — including handset exclusivity deals, such as AT&T Inc.'s contract with Apple Inc. making it the sole U.S. carrier for the iPhone — to Google Inc.'s ever-expanding clout on the Internet.
"Antitrust enforcers tend to look at companies with the most significant market share," said David Turetsky, co-chair of the antitrust practice group at Dewey LeBoeuf and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division under the Clinton White House. "Wherever you have market power, there are just more possibilities for anticompetitive issues."
John Briggs, co-chairman of the antitrust group with Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP, said he would not be surprised to see the Justice Department also turn its sights back to Microsoft Corp.
Although the Bush administration settled a landmark antitrust case brought against the software giant during the Clinton years, the company still dominates the enormous market for PC operating systems and is going head-to-head with Google in the Internet search market. The Justice Department is reviewing a proposed partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo Inc., which want to team up to better compete with Google.
In the case of IBM, the Justice Department is looking into complaints by the company's competitors that the Armonk, N.Y.-based computer giant has frozen them out of the mainframe market by refusing to license its mainframe operating software. Last week, a federal judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit brought by one of those competitors, T3 Technologies Inc. But the Justice Department has requested information from T3 and other IBM rivals.
Mergers and acquisitions are also certain to be subject to much closer review. The Bush administration gave the green light to substantial consolidation in the tech and telecom industries. It approved Google's acquistion of the Internet advertising network DoubleClick Inc., for instance, as well as a wave of mergers in the telecommunications sector that has left just three big local phone companies.
But future deals could face more resistance.
Black, for one, said he believes the Justice Department has its work cut out for it since "there are so many holdover problems from the last administration."
"A lot of companies probably started pushing the envelope and maybe some went over the line because they realized that the cop was on vacation," Black said.
The challenge now facing the Justice Department is to figure out how to apply antitrust principles to an industry that is evolving so quickly, with companies constantly moving into each other's territory, said Melissa Maxman, head of the antitrust practice group at Baker & Hostetler LLP.
"The information technology market is so fluid," she said. "They will be scrambling to come up with a new way to look at it because it changes so fast and has so many powerful players."
By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer


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Dartmouth neuroscientist finds free will has neural basis
A new theory of brain function by Peter Ulric Tse, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College, suggests that free will is real and has a biophysical basis in the microscopic workings of our brain cells.
Tse's findings, which contradict recent claims by neuroscientists and philosophers that free will is an illusion, have theological, ethical, scientific and legal implications for human behavior, such as whether people are accountable for their decisions and actions.
His book shows how free will works in the brain by examining its information-processing architecture at the level of neural connections. He offers a testable hypothesis of how the mental causes the physical. In contrast with philosophers who use logic rather than data to argue whether mental causation or consciousness can exist, he explores these issues by starting with neuroscientific data.
Recent neurophysiological breakthroughs reveal that neurons evaluate information they receive, which can change the way that other neurons will evaluate information and "fire" in the future. Tse's research shows that such informational causation cannot change the physical basis of current information, but it can change the neuronal basis of future mental events. This gets around the standard argument against free will that is based on the impossibility of self-causation.
Tse lays out his argument in his new book titled "The Neural Basis of Free Will"—https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/neural-basis-free-will


text:
When it comes to printing fine art photographs, even experienced photographers sometimes feel unsure about which type of paper to choose. Many are aware that fine art papers exist, but not of how they differ from regular printing paper and what to look for when choosing a product.
Here, award-winning Russian photographer and Canon Ambassador Evgenia Arbugaeva, Hahnemühle product manager Andrea Sippel and Canon Europe's Product Marketing Lead Suhaib Hussain answer some of the most commonly asked questions from photographers about printing paper for fine art photography.


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First, let's look at what the opening "page" looks like for the listing of Postmasters appointed during this time period (there is some overlap of records so do not expect to have the listings fall neatly into place):
(all images posted here are used with permission of the National Archives, Pacific Region, Riverside County, CA)
Obviously, I will be interested in cross checking information found here with the 1860 Federal Census and, if applicable, any state census schedules that fall within this time frame of 1855-1865.
My normal suggestion is that, if you discover an ancestor lists him/herself on the census as a "Postmaster" or "Postmistress" (or even just working for a Post Office - who knows, a promotion could be just around the corner), you would want to check these records for the information about the appointment and what Post Office was involved (just because a person lived in a given town, say Albany, it does not mean that that is the same town where he/she served as a Postmaster).
As a reminder, these records are defined on my earlier blogpost and directions for finding which Archives houses the referenced microfilms is on a still earlier post. Follow those links for the information and aids in understanding why these records are of value to genealogists.
So I looked up Green County, Wisconsin and discovered that there are 32 towns and townships within that location. Of course, there were significantly fewer back in the mid-19th Century and some of the ones that were there (e.g., Shuey's Mills, Farmer's Grove, and Willet) are not listed on the RootsWeb site (some may have been abandoned while others may have been subsumed by larger communities). When I go through the history of the towns of Green County, I find some of the same names as those listed in the Postmaster pages. Some towns (Shuey's Mills, for example) had, as the first or subsequent Postmaster, the same person for whom the village (hamlet, crossing in the road, etc.) was named. In the case of Shuey, though he was a Postmaster for some period of time in the 1850s, by 1860 he pops up on the County Poorhouse roster in the census, leaving one to believe that being a Postmaster might not necessarily have been a lucrative profession in that time.
In fact, all but one of the Postmasters I traced in the census listed other trades than the USPS as their means of making a living. There were farmers and merchants, for the most part (the latter makes perfect sense as many of the Post Offices were housed in the General Store, making the store-owner also the Postmaster, by default). In one situation, the job of Postmaster seemed to be passed from one family member to the next as folks moved or (apparently) died.
The value of these records is quite interesting, though not particularly obvious, at first. A recording in the Postmaster logs is more likely to have an accurate spelling of a person's name than we find in the census. It also clarifies where that person was working during a fairly specific period of time: while the appointment date is provided, the next recorded date is when the Postmaster's successor was appointed, not when the previous individual left the position . . . it is possible that the position might have been vacant for some length of time. Just because a Postmaster has vacated the position does not mean that the person died; he/she might have moved or been dismissed from the job for some reason or other. Other records that might help clarify the circumstances would be vital records, newspaper articles, historical information from the county (some Post Offices were discontinued because the town ceased to exist or was incorporated into another community), tax records, military records, etc. I presume that my readers are familiar with the various sources for some of these items, but welcome your inquiries if you need some guidance there.
And so now you may have a bit of a lead as to why these records can have significance to genealogists. In future posts I will give some specific examples of how these can be useful and what mysteries can be unearthed (or created) as a result.


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Asterisk-phone-reminder Release status: stable [box doku] | |
Datei:Oldphone.jpg | |
Description | A bot to remind us to take out the trash |
Author(s) | Soeren |
Platform | Linux |
What if your phone could remind you to take out the trash..? This is a nice feature, especially for a hackerspace where many people come, leave and nobody is keen on taking responsibility for this kind of task. The following describes our current implementation of a task-reminding telephone bot utilizing asterisk.
The asterisk phone reminder is a simple tool that calls you before an "important" event occurs. Asterisk allows to place "call files" into a spool-directory. It scans that directory regularly and parses the timestamps of the files therein. If a file's timestamp is older than the present time, it executes the commands within the file.
This project uses this feature in order to set the reminders. A small perl script looks into a directory (/etc/labor-task-reminder/dates) and copies a predefined call file into asterisk's spool directory if there's a file with a date that's < 30 Hours ahead. Well, here it goes:
#!/usr/bin/perl use POSIX qw(mktime); # config stuff: $dpath = "/etc/labor-task-reminder/dates/"; # path for dates $cfpath = "/etc/labor-task-reminder/callfiles/"; # path for cfiles, mind the slash at the end! $spoolpath = "/var/spool/asterisk/outgoing/"; # asterisk's call spool $remindtime = 108000; # time (in seconds) to start the reminder (10800 == 30 hours before) @dfiles = `ls --color=never $dpath`; foreach $dfile (@dfiles) { if ( ! $dfile =~ m/^(20[0-9]{2})-([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)-.*\$/ ) { next; } $dfile =~ /^(20[0-9]{2})-([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)-(.*)$/; my($foo) = mktime(0,0,0, $3, $2 -1, $1 - 1900, 0, 0, -1); $foo -= $remindtime; if ($foo < time()) { if (-e "${cfpath}${4}") { system("cp ${cfpath}${4} ${spoolpath}"); system("rm ${dpath}${dfile}"); } } }
This script is called once a day by cron - with a 30-hour treshold this should be sufficient to remind soon enough the day before the trash is taken away.
As mentioned before, the path /etc/labor-task-reminder/dates holds several files with dates as their names. These files are, for example, called "2009-01-30-altpapier". The last word of the filename is the name of the callfile that is then placed into asterisk's spool. A set of predefined callfiles resides in /etc/labor-task-reminder/callfiles. Here's an example file called "gelbersack":
Channel: SIP/0000 Callerid: 1337 MaxRetries: 2000 RetryTime: 600 WaitTime: 60 Context: reminders Extension: 7700
The file's parameters have the following meaning:
- Call SIP/0000 (this is the extension to call when you want to reach all phones)
- Callerid: Set the callerid "1337" ;-)
- Maxretries: Try 2000 times...
- Retrytime: ...every 600 seconds...
- WaitTime: ...and let the phone ring for 60 seconds.
- Context: Well, guess what! The context.
- Extension: Right, the extension to run
If you've dealt with asterisk before, you probably know that we'll also have to edit extensions.conf in order to make this work. The context and extension have to be added so asterisk knows what to do. Well, our extensions.conf looks like this:
; ... [reminders] exten => 7700,1,Answer() exten => 7700,n,Wait(2) exten => 7700,n,Playback(gelbersack) exten => 7700,n,Wait(1) exten => 7700,n,Hangup() ; ...
...for those of you sitting in the labor now with that evil smile on your face, here's a short warning: Don't abuse this feature. Do NOT set alarms unless really neccessary. People will ignore the phone when they're called just for a joke. If you really want to try out what it does, simply dial 7700 or 7701.


text: =================================================== PODC 2022: FIRST CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS =================================================== PODC 2022, July 25-July 29, Salerno, Italy https://www.podc.org <https://www.podc.org/> The 41st Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC 2022) invites proposals for full-day and half-day workshops and tutorials. They will take place on Monday, July 25, and Friday, July 29. A proposal should include: * Title of the workshop or tutorial * A description of the subject matter and why it would be of interest to the PODC community * Name(s) and contact information of the organizer(s) * Proposed format (e.g., invited speakers only, or peer-reviewed papers with proceedings, etc.) * Length: half-day or full-day * Date preference: July 25 or July 29 * Estimated number of speakers and attendees * Link to previous editions of the same workshop (if applicable) The proposals should be sent by e-mail to the Workshop Chair, Alkida Balliu <[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> We will be accepting proposals until the end of January 2022. We cannot guarantee to give consideration to proposals arriving after January 31 as we will begin the process of setting the schedule soon after that point. With regards to potential topics, we are looking for proposals related to the current scope of PODC or are new emerging research fields complementing or extending it, including but not restricted to: * distributed algorithms: design, analysis, and complexity * communication networks: algorithms, architectures, services, protocols, applications * multiprocessor and multi-core architectures and algorithms * shared and transactional memory, synchronization protocols, concurrent programming * fault-tolerance, reliability, availability, self-organization, self-stabilization * codes and reliable communication * Internet applications, social networks, recommendation systems * dynamic, adaptive and machine learning-based distributed algorithms * distributed operating systems, middleware platforms, databases * game-theoretic approaches to distributed computing * distributed mechanisms design * peer-to-peer systems, overlay networks, distributed data management * high-performance, cluster, cloud and grid computing * wireless networks, mobile computing, autonomous agents and robots * context-aware distributed systems * security in distributed computing, cryptographic protocols * distributed cryptocurrencies and blockchain protocols * quantum and optics-based distributed algorithms * nanonetworks * biological distributed algorithms * sensor, mesh, and ad hoc networks * specification, semantics, verification of concurrent systems Regards, Arnaud Labourel Publicity Co-chair, PODC 2022 ############################ You can unsubscribe at any time through this link: https://optout.acm.org/unsubscribe.cfm?rl=SPAA&RE=&UEMAIL;


text:
After the search for autistic Rego Park teen Avonte Oquendo ended tragically, hundreds of mourners came out to say goodbye at his funeral Saturday, where he was remembered as a silent yet always smiling, courageous boy.
Family and friends gathered at a private ceremony held at the Greenwich Village Funeral Home in Manhattan, where a "beautiful silence" took over the room, said Leslie Burch, a close family friend. Also among those paying respects was actress Holly Robinson Peete, whose son has autism.
Avonte's father is consoled before a service for his son at the Greenwich Village Funeral Home.
Mourners then made their way to St. Joseph's Church, just a few blocks away, where a public mass was led by former Archbishop of New York Edward Michael Egan.
"He was a strong, courageous young man who handled the struggle with autism with tremendous greatness and true nobility," said Egan, standing next to a large portrait of Avonte wearing a blue striped shirt, which was also handed out on prayer cards.
Egan also took the time to thank and recognize the efforts that went into the nearly four month search for the missing 14-year-old after he was last seen at the Center Boulevard School in Long Island City on Oct. 4.
Avonte's mother waits to place a white rose on her son's casket.
Officials confirmed Tuesday that remains found washed up along the East River in College Point last week were those of Avonte. The cause and manner of death are pending on future tests, according to the medical examiner.
"Police officers and various agencies of our beloved city made it no less clear that they too knew how precious Avonte was," said Egan.
Although Avonte's family decided not to speak during the services Saturday, his mother, together with his brothers and other mourners, laid white roses on top of his white casket following the release of doves outside of the church.
Another family member that attended the service was Avonte's cousin and best friend 20 –year-old Noah Javan Conti from Woodside who is mildly autistic.
Rocopra Conti, who raised Noah and also attended the funeral, remembers the last time he saw Avonte. That day the teen grabbed Rocopra's face and gave him one last look.
Noah Javan Conti, Avonte's cousin and best friend, and Rocopra Conti.
"That was the last moment we shared," said Rocopra. "I knew how to love him, I knew what he was feeling. I just wish I could have done more."
Family attorney David Perecman, who spoke at the funeral mass, said that even though the search was concluded, the story is not finished yet.
"I must ask all of you, I ask that this not be the last chapter in this very sad story. We must have at least one more," said Perecman. "This loss that this family has of Avonte cannot be in vain, we must find out how to fix our schools, we must find out how to fix the system of security that failed this boy."
There have been conflicting reports on how Avonte, who could not verbally communicate and was supposed to be supervised at all times, managed to leave his school the day he went missing.
Following the identification of her son, Vanessa Fontaine filed suit against the City of New York on Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, according to court records.
Fontaine filed the court action demanding the NYPD release records relating to the disappearance of Avonte, according to published reports.
Perecman also said he will be filing a $25 million negligence claim against the city, focused on the Department of Education, for wrongful death.


text:
To see one soaring above you, denotes lofty ambitions which you will struggle fiercely to realize, nevertheless you will gain your desires.
To see one perched on distant heights, denotes that you will possess fame, wealth and the highest position attainable in your country.
To see young eagles in their eyrie, signifies your association with people of high standing, and that you will profit from wise counsel from them.
You will in time come into a rich legacy.
To dream that you kill an eagle, portends that no obstacles whatever would be allowed to stand before you and the utmost heights of your ambition.
You will overcome your enemies and be possessed of untold wealth.
Eating the flesh of one, denotes the possession of a powerful will that would not turn aside in ambitious struggles even for death.
You will come immediately into rich possessions.
To see a dead eagle killed by others than yourself, signifies high rank and fortune will be wrested from you ruthlessly.
To ride on an eagle's back, denotes that you will make a long voyage into almost unexplored countries in your search for knowledge and wealth which you will eventually gain.


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Creatures of the night
People who favour the evening score higher on Dark Triad personality traits.
18 July 2013
There are countless examples in nature of biological adaptations going hand in hand with either a nocturnal or diurnal (day-time) lifestyle. For instance, cats have reflective lenses allowing better vision in low light; chimps have colour vision which is useful for spotting fruit in daylight.
In a new paper Peter Jonason and his colleagues provide evidence that in humans certain personality types act as a form of adaptation that correlates with a preference for daily or nightly living (a person's "chronotype"). Specifically the researchers have shown that people with a preference for the evening and night-time tend to score highly on the "Dark Triad" of personality traits – Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism.
Jonason and his colleagues surveyed 263 students online (average age 24; there were 74 men) using a narcissism scale (participants rated their agreement with statements like: "I have a natural talent for influencing people"); a psychopathy scale (e.g. "I think I could beat a lie detector"), a Machiavellianism scale (e.g. "it is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there") and chronotype questionnaire (participants answered questions like "During the first half hour after you wake up in the morning, how do you feel?").
Across the sample, average Dark Triad trait scores correlated negatively with chronotype scores (r was -.14, p<.001 where -1 would be a perfect correlation). That is, the darker a person's personality score, the more they tended to be an "owl" and to say they functioned more effectively in the evening. Drilling down into the individual subscales: psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and the entitlement/exploitativeness aspects of narcissism all correlated on their own with eveningness on the chronotype questionnaire.
Jonason and his team said their results were consistent with a "niche-specialisation" hypothesis. "It could be adaptively effective for anyone pursuing a fast life strategy like that embodied in the Dark Triad to occupy and exploit a low-light environment where others are sleeping and having diminished cognitive functioning," they said. "Such features of the night may facilitate the casual sex, mate-poaching, and risk-taking the Dark Triad traits are linked to."
The findings give pause for thought but the dependence on a student sample once again raises questions about the generalisability of the results. The modest size of the relevant correlations also undermines the researchers' theoretical speculations. Another problem is the reliance on self-report. This is common in chronotype research, but nonetheless it raises the issue of whether the self-described owls really do function better in the evening or if they simply prefer that time of day.
Further reading
Peter K. Jonason, and Amy Jones Minna Lyons (2013). Creatures of the night: Chronotypes and the Dark Triad traits. Personality and Individual Differences DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2013.05.001


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When you run sudo
in Ubuntu, your administrative privileges last for 15 minutes by default so you don't have to type in your password with every command. If that is too long or short for your tastes, you can change it with a simple tweak.
We recently showed you how to make your sudo passwords visible, and in that exploration I discovered another handy tip. If you'd rather not type in your password every 15 minutes (or if you'd rather your computer prompt you more often for security reasons), you can change this timeout value by editing the sudoers settings file. Here's how:
Run the following command in a Terminal:
sudo visudo
Scroll down to the line that looks like this:
Defaults env_reset
and change it to this:
Defaults env_reset,timestamp_timeout=30
to the time, in minutes, that you want it to wait before it times out. You can also change it to0
if you want a password prompt every time you runsudo
, or-1
if you never want a password prompt (though we don't recommend this).Press Ctrl+X to finish editing, Y to save changes, and Enter to exit if you're on Ubuntu. Other Linux distros may have different commands depending on the default editor.
We haven't tested this with other Linux distros, but it should work in most others as well. Hit the link to read more.
Change the Sudo Password Timeout in Ubuntu | Make Tech Easier


text:
On the first Earth Day, in 1970, a cartoon poster appeared at rallies in all 50 states. It showed a rueful opossum picking up papers, bottles, cans, wrappers—the detritus of modern life. Superimposed on the image were the words WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.
That poster has stayed in print for more than four decades and remains as pertinent now as on the day it was created by Walt Kelly. At his zenith, from about 1950 to 1970, Kelly was the most popular cartoonist in America. Some 50 million readers followed his comic strip Pogo and its eponymous possum. Paperback compilations hit the bestseller list. Kelly was compared to Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, to Daumier and Disney, and he received just about every award that his profession had to offer, from Cartoonist of the Year to induction into the National Cartoon Museum's Hall of Fame. He was the first strip cartoonist to contribute originals to the Library of Congress.
Yet in the epoch of oversize graphic novels and diminished newspaper comics, this immensely gifted artist and writer has become a back number. Cartoon aficionados know and revere his work. Alas, general readers have moved on. They're missing one of the great troves of American comic art and commentary.
Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr., was born in Philadelphia in 1913. His father, a factory worker, soon moved the family to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where there were better-paying jobs. Looking back, Walt remembered an idyllic boyhood: "All I did was sing and draw on paper bags." While drawing, he listened to the city's mix of languages. "We found ourselves living cheek by jowl with the Dzumatis, the Vander Kruiks, the Klespers, the Zismans, the Ostrofskys, the Kekacs, the Grietches, the Seresins, the Varjabedians, the Marchands, the Budas, and many more. We children learned more unusable phrases in foreign tongues by the time we were ten than most world travelers learn in a lifetime." Those phrases, highly garbled, would later surface in his work.
The youth made some skillful illustrations for his high school newspaper, impressing the editor of the Bridgeport Post, who hired him to draw a comic-strip biography of circus impresario P. T. Barnum, a Bridgeport native. Several years later, Kelly journeyed to New York City to work on comic books. The salary was small, though, so in the mid-thirties he went west. By the end of the decade, he had acquired a wife and a job at Disney, where he contributed to Snow White, Dumbo, and Fantasia. Then, in 1941, Disney employees went on strike, demanding higher wages and better benefits. Rather than take sides, Kelly, who had friends in management and pals on the picket line, headed back east to become a freelancer for Dell Comics.
As the U.S. edged closer to war, the character who was to bring Kelly worldwide recognition, Pogo Possum, debuted in the first issue of Dell's Animal Comics. The marsupial certainly didn't come on like a star; he was merely the foil of a little African-American boy named Bumbazine. Pogo was long-nosed and small-eyed, and his home was a tree in the steamy Okefenokee swamp, which straddles the border between Florida and Georgia. Scientist Stephen Jay Gould once drolly described the biological progress of Mickey Mouse, who assumed "an ever more childlike appearance as the ratty character of Steamboat Willie became the cute and inoffensive host to a magic kingdom." So it was with Pogo. During the war, Kelly illustrated training manuals for the U.S. Army, and he was too busy to pay proper attention to his creation. But after V-J Day, he saw to it that the possum acquired larger eyes, a smaller nose, a more innocent personality, and a bunch of hilarious colleagues, while the swamp became more Arcadian and appealing. En route, Bumbazine vanished; Kelly preferred to work entirely with "nature's screechers." Birds, reptiles, and four-legged mammals "don't hurt as easily," he noted, "and it's possible to make them more believable in an exaggerated pose." It was time for Pogo to take center stage.
The furry little guy was confined to comic books, and therefore to a mostly juvenile readership, until 1948. That year, Kelly landed a job with the New York Star, where he drew political cartoons (one showed Thomas E. Dewey, the "Republican machine candidate" for president, as a cash register) but spent most of his creative energy on a daily strip about the denizens of Okefenokee. Every panel overflowed with richly detailed flora and humorously rendered fauna. When the Star folded in 1949, Kelly packed up his pens and paintbrushes and moved to the Post-Hall syndicate.
It was a life-altering decision. Post-Hall fed hundreds of outlets, and in the volatile world of postwar newspaper comics, Pogo was the sleeper of the year. Calling the possum "the newest comic-strip character with intellectual appeal," Time added that "from . . . everyday situations the bone of contention is pulled, and the hollow space stuffed with whimsy, sentiment, gags, puns, and a sprinkling of philosophy ground very small." T. S. Eliot became a devotee, as did the philosopher Theodor Adorno.
In print journalism's last great days, Okefenokee grew as familiar as the waterfront of Popeye and the Dogpatch of Li'l Abner (see "Exile in Dogpatch," Spring 2010). Like Abner creator Al Capp, Walt Kelly liked to lampoon his colleagues. Just as Capp drew Fearless Fosdick, a parody of Dick Tracy, within his own comic strip, so Kelly drew Little Arf and Nonny, a send-up of Little Orphan Annie, with a bewigged Pogo playing Nonny and a hound in the role of Little Arf. In the hall of mirrors that was comic art, Mad magazine promptly parodied Okefenokee with a strip called Gopo Gossum.
Pogo's swamp critters came in all sizes and personalities. In addition to the title character, the principals included Albert, a brash, cigar-chomping alligator; Porky Pine, a grouch with a 24-carat heart; and Howland Owl, a self-designated authority on everything: "The natural born reason we didn't git no yew-ranium when we crosses the li'l yew tree and the gee-ranium is on account of cause we didn't have no Geiger counter." Bringing up the rear was Churchy Le Femme, a mud turtle and troubadour specializing in song parodies. The best known of these, a lampoon of "Deck the Halls," can still be heard at Christmas:
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!Don't we know archaic barrel,
Lullaby Lilla boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
This furry, scaled, quilled, feathered, and shelled quintet was backed by a supporting cast of Dickensian proportions—more than 600 players, all told. They included Beauregard Bugleboy, a doggerel-loving canine; Miz Mam'selle Hepzibah, a flirtatious skunk; and Deacon Mushrat, a hypocritical mammal of the cloth who spoke in elaborately lettered Gothic script. (When an editor complained that such effusions were hard to read, Kelly replied, "Mighty hard to letter, too.") There were also Molester Mole, a paranoid sneak; Seminole Sam, a fox who specialized in scams; and Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred, a trio of scruffy bats. Crowds of lesser players entered and exited, ranging from Sarcophagus MacAbre, a vulture and mortician in search of clients, to Tammananny Tiger, a corrupt politico. But the ursine P. T. Bridgeport outdid them all. Kelly drew his monologues as minuscule vaudeville broadsides, complete with pointing fingers, striped capital letters, and booming exclamation points—making it impossible, in the pages of this magazine, to replicate properly his "Don't give this away, pal, but DRIVE-IN FUNERAL PARLORS COULD BECOME A LIVIN' RAGE—quick, easy, curb service!!!"
Most of the characters talked in "swampspeak," a unique amalgam of Southern dialect and foreign exclamations: "I ain't said much but I is been pushed around ee-nuf! I is gone stand up for my rights! And I got rights I ain't hardly used yet!" Kelly enriched these monologues with such portmanteau words as "hysteriwockle" and "incredibobble," as well as nonsensical hollers like "Rowrbazzle!" and "Facinorous Runagates!"
Kelly gave a terse explanation of his political philosophy: he stood against "the extreme right, the extreme left, and the extreme middle." In the far-off fifties, that was how most college students felt, too. Thus in 1952, when the strip announced that Pogo was throwing his hat into the political ring, thousands of POGO FOR PRESIDENT buttons suddenly appeared on campuses. From UCLA to NYU, mock rallies celebrated the possum who dared to run against Republican Dwight Eisenhower and Democrat Adlai Stevenson. At Harvard, one rally got out of hand: some 1,000 students rioted. Three police wagons, eight patrol cars, and 25 patrolmen arrived on the scene, arresting 28 students before restoring order. Come election time, poet Carl Sandburg declared, "I Go Pogo!" The possum's defeat was insignificant; in 1956, he ran again, to the delight of his burgeoning fan base.
Pogo briefly dabbled in apolitical humor with Songs of the Pogo, a vinyl LP featuring lyrics from the strip set to music, and the Pogomobile, featuring Okefenokee's leading lights in a device that dangled from many a dorm ceiling. In the strip itself, the swamp held a poetry contest, won by Albert because the alligator wrote the "weightiest" verse (it was inscribed on a boulder). There were monthlong baseball games, too, with Churchy as umpire. The "turkle" was so afraid of controversy that he withdrew into his shell, calling balls and strikes he couldn't see. And there was a meandering stream of paradoxes: "Food is no substitute for the real thing." "The minority got us outnumbered." "You want to cut down air pollution? Cut down the original source. . . . Breathin'!" "We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities."
But the satirist would not stay quiet for long. From the mid-1950s onward, Kelly sharpened his nib and went for the jugular. Sometimes he used black humor, as when Albert addressed segregation: "You open up a school, next thing you know all kinds of ignoramuses is comin' in. They meets yo' daughter, splits an orange with her, poof! They's engaged, married, an' livin' in the attic. An' I don't want nobody marryin' my daughter if he's so ignorant he gotta go to school in the first place." At other times, he drew animals with the attributes of Beltway figures: FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, for example, was depicted as a stubborn and not very bright bulldog, and the young Richard Nixon made an appearance as a tiny elephant.
Surely Kelly's most savage portrait was a polecat named Simple J. Malarkey. No one ever doubted the identity of this feline, whose heavy eyebrows, swarthy chin, and glowering mien evoked the features of Joseph P. McCarthy. Months before Edward R. Murrow's celebrated CBS program denouncing the much-feared, Red-hunting senator from Wisconsin, Kelly had Malarkey stomping through Georgia, terrifying denizens with his shotgun and his attitude: "Sentence first, verdict after." Naturally, the polecat didn't sit well with McCarthy's followers. Malarkey even bothered some liberal editors. "We still intend to express our views on the editorial page," the Providence Journal announced, "but we vastly prefer to keep those views on that page. We shall drop Pogo on any days when his McCarthy cast appears." Kelly censured the censors in his inimitable manner. Thereafter, when Malarkey appeared, he had a paper bag over his head. Now he not only suggested Senator McCarthy; he also looked like a scoundrel dressed for a Ku Klux Klan rally.
During this period, the John Birch Society made headlines across the nation. The radical-right group saw subversion everywhere, even in the White House. The Society's founder, Robert Welch, asked his adherents, "Could Eisenhower really be simply a smart politician, entirely without principles and hungry for glory, who is only the tool of the Communists? The answer is yes." Upon close examination, Welch argued, "it is difficult to avoid raising the question of deliberate treason."
Kelly riposted with The Jack Acid Society Black Book, a caustic view of the Birchers. In it, Molester Mole and Deacon Mushrat established their own organization to cleanse Okefenokee of radicals. Their blacklist grew longer by the panel, until finally the founders began accusing each other of disloyalty. In the end, only the mole was left. Readers made Jack Acid a winner. They also bought thousands of copies of an oversize commemorative volume, Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo.
Members of the hard Left believed that Kelly had joined their ranks. He reacted by deriding the "grinning gargoyle of a dedicated liberal searching for meaning." All along, he contended, he had pursued only one goal: "to have fun and make money at the same time." Long before, he had introduced a pair of repellent Communist cowbirds who spouted Marxist slogans and claimed to be doves. Now, in the 1960s, he offered new proofs of his independence: a nameless, mannerless pig who bore an ominous resemblance to Nikita Khrushchev and a scruffy goat who looked exactly like Fidel Castro. Both assured Okefenokeeans that a one-party system was the way to go; all would be well economically, they explained, because "the shortage will be divided amongst the peasants."
When John F. Kennedy campaigned for the presidency, Kelly kidded the youthful candidate by picturing him as an unhatched egg. During Lyndon Johnson's administration, the chief executive appeared as a heavy-hoofed longhorn. After LBJ's tenure, other presidential hopefuls entered the strip: Hubert Humphrey, Robert F. Kennedy, Nixon, and Mitt Romney's father, George, each depicted as a mechanical toy wound up by P. T. Bridgeport. Later strips depicted Alabama governor George Wallace as a bantam rooster, Senator Eugene McCarthy as a knight riding his horse backward, and Spiro Agnew as a hyena.
If the strip lost its zip in the seventies, it wasn't because of ebbing imagination; it was because of Kelly's failing health. In palmier days, he could toss off a daily Pogo in an hour and a Sunday version in under three. His blithe self-description was as accurate as it was zany: "Mr. Kelly is six feet high, and, like a big-mouthed bass or Mt. Everest, has indisputably been scaled. Small mountaineer members of the family climb across his unshorn and generally unshaven beard while he works at a drawing board usually placed in some trouble spot like the living-room or the vestibule."
But in the cartoonist's late middle age, a fondness for the bottle and for cigarettes, coupled with the ravages of diabetes, took a toll. Kelly had divorced, remarried, become a widower, and married again, this last time to Margaret Selby Daley, a fellow comic artist. The wedding took place a few hours before he found himself hospitalized for severe diabetes. A leg was amputated the next day. Kelly joked that he would plow on until he grew a new one, but assistants took over much of the writing and drawing.
Royalties and licensing, however, went on undiminished. He needed them; he had six children to support. Among the vast panoply of Pogo merchandise were plastic figurines, paperback compilations, mock election buttons, and Okefenokee character mugs. The possum also starred in an animated TV movie, The Pogo Special Birthday Special. Kelly, who supplied the voice of Albert, was so dissatisfied with the outcome that in the fall of 1973, he and his wife left their Manhattan apartment, setting up shop in Los Angeles to be near the studios. They were at work on a new animated special, We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us, when Kelly suddenly lapsed into a diabetic coma. On October 18, two months after his 60th birthday, he died in the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills. His wife completed the film, but it was never broadcast. After Kelly's death, family members mimicked his drawing style and kept the strip afloat for several years, but the heart had gone out of Okefenokee. Periodic attempts to reignite Pogo met with failure—proof, if any was needed, that there was only one Walt Kelly.
Yet Pogo has not disappeared, thanks to a loyal band of devotees. A full set of those figurines now costs about $100 on eBay and Amazon. Amazon lists more than 30 Pogo hardcovers, paperbacks, and comic books. Some go for a few dollars; others are worth $800. The original ink-drawn daily strips go for about $600, Sunday strips for $1,600.
More significantly, Kelly's output lives on in others' work. Pogo's impact has been acknowledged by Jim Henson of the Muppets, Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury, Mort Walker of Hi and Lois, and Jeff McNally of Shoe, who remarked, "Long before I could grasp the satiric significance of his stuff, I was enchanted by Kelly's magnificent artwork. We'll never see anything like Pogo again in the funnies, I'm afraid." Jeff Smith, creator of the best-selling Bone graphic novels, agrees: "Whenever I get to thinking I've got this whole cartooning gig down cold, I just pull out a Pogo book and see how much better it can be."
Walt Kelly was too modest to make such grand claims. He frequently quoted a line that he had written for Porky Pine: "Don't take life so serious, it ain't nohow permanent." No, it ain't. But art—even comic art—can be, in the hands of a master. Every book, every comic, every panel verifies the claims of Kelly's fervent cheering squad: after 63 ever-lovin' blue-eyed years, Pogo is still incomparabobble.


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We interviewed David like 6 years ago... We thought now would be a great time to catch up with him since he has a big solo show opening up at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC Saturday January 6, 2007... Other that, Dave doesn't need much of an intro. Read about the show, his CCA experience, his relationship with Heidi Fleiss, the films he's working on, and check out some of his current work.
It's really intense, because besides the jail art show I did in new york last year, I've never done a huge painting show that flexes all my creative bones in the big apples and people been asking for it for years so I hope I don't dissapoint... plus the fact that some of the work sells in the 5 figure range it alienates a lot of my deadbeat fans that can only afford my one dollar zine's... You try to please everyone, but in the end I just end up making shit that makes me happy, and hopefully someone else likes it too. Plus, it doesn't help that people say shit like, "I admired and connected wth your work because it was raw, fresh, unglamorized, and a "not giving a fuck attitude towards it". Your work was the level I wanted to be on. I'm over it now though. No offense, but you shouldn't get too comfortable doing the same type of shit over and over. I know it sells, but cmon, man." It's like, do I like the work or the story of the artist? The line became blurred for me in regards to you."... whoa?! that's fucked (some guy wrote that on my blog 5 minutes ago http://davechoe.blogspot.com)... Bottom line though is that I don't give a fuck, I make art that I like for myself, to express myself, and if my personality gets in the way of that then don't read or watch any more interviews. If you think I'm reapeating myself your fucking tripping. Also, I'm tripping on security, I got my friends and family and some undercover on look out, but the loonies and crazies have been jacking my paintings at my last few shows. We caught one at the Upper Playground show and really did a number on them. It's not ok to steal paintings. You will get fucked up... Anyways, right now my house looks like those crazy peoples house when they die, and the police come in a year later and the trash is stacked a foot deep and everthing smells like milk and furry meats.
Really mental. A lot of painting right before I go to bed and right when I wake up. A lot of dreams of far away places... places I want to go... places I'm scared of. A lot of watercolors and tons of mixed media shit... tons of subliminal erotic dirty styles.
I was at soul assasins studio last month and cartoon has his car, so I can't wait for the day I get mine. I'm gonna wreck that shit in the first week.
I was living in New York to help art direct Jewcy. After that I flew to LA to hitch hike and frieght hop from downtown L.A. to miami. I slept a lot in the street last month (that was for http://www.vbs.tv) then I've been lecturing and demo-ing alot... so I end up seeing the inside of a lot of hotels. I'm hardly ever at home in San Jose.
Sure. Take Barron Storey and Vincent Perez. Try to get laid and then drop out.
Well my whole life I've been dirty Dave. So barron worked right into my dirty styles. The dirty styles rules all other schools and styles. The layering, the personal touch to everything, I'm from the school of dirty styles, but it's more than just style and surface, it's every dirty thing that's inside you. Dirty styles is painting on found object besides a blank peice of paper or blank white wall, this started for me when my dad would bring home used xeroxes's from work so I could crayola all over the backs, then moved onto painting on bus benches and other shit on the street because I couldn't afford canvases... so even before you start there's some history, there's some spills, chills and marks, then you keep creating more history on top of that, spilling, spraying ,dripping, creaming, collaging, making a mess. All this ugly dirty shit and hopefully the end product being something that's tolerable and beautiful... something born from that filth. Creating hope from dark beginings... the fucking dirty styles. It's theraputic as hell. It sounds easy, but most people really suck at it, and a lot of people try. Some people that are great at it like Bill Sienkiewicz , Dave Mckean, Ashley Wood, John Copeland, Jeff Soto, Barry McGee, MARS-1, and dave kinsey. Barron Storey is the current king of the dirty school... past kings were Rauschenberg and Klimt... I'm just a pawn.
Fuck man, I don't know. I leave Harry alone to make his movie... check http://dirtyhandsmovie.com/ for updates.
The movie that I helped out in and did some voices for that is done is WE ARE THE STRANGE (an animated movie that my friend M. strange made over the course of the last 3 years, with a little help from me and Sean Boyles) is officially in the Sundance festival!! Not only is it in, it's showing four fucking times (is that normal?)!! and I think it's the only animated feature that got in this year. The hollywood types are already sniffing around, offers from all the major studios are starting to come in... Can't wait to see how this all plays out. I'm excited as fuck. I'll see you all in mormon country next year. It's gonna blow your fucking mind. You've never seen anything like this. Here's the schedule for PARK CITY,UTAH: Friday January 19th. Egyptian. 11:59pm --- Saturday January 20th. Egyptian. 12:00pm --- Sunday January 21st. Broadway 4. 6:00pm --- Saturday January 27th. Holiday IV. 9:30pm
Remind me to tell you another day. I can write a book about that period of my life. She had me paint horses for her bedroom, and tried to pimp me out to rich older ladies... It was a fucking trip man... Heidi's a really cool lady but out of her fucking mind.
I actually answered this question once like it was a homework assignment here.
Skribbles and scrwals and drafting and sketching with markers pens pencils and crayons, collages with matte medium, next a juicy super wet super loose pelican watercolors, don't wait for it to dry, light mist spray from a neutral to dark krylon, tighten up with acrylics, tighten up even more with color pencils and different inks in rapidographs, set the whole thing back with workable fixitve, oil wash over entire painting bring out the highlights by wiping away darks, set the whole thing in stone with kamar varnish remove unwanted parts with graffitti remover and begin the whole process until desired effect is achieved, end with oral sex.
Not making it to the toilet (happens once every other year)
Just living my life the way I want... every day is a blessing. I get flown all over the world to basically showoff- especially getting to live out my second life as a musician. People recognizing the drum skills as well as the art skills... After all these years, it's still pretty new for me... One of the biggest highlights for me this year was playing with the Miami high school marching band at Art Basel... In the last few years I've got to jam with Aceyalone, Peanut Butter Wolf, Mad Lib, Cutsoquick, The Fingerbangerz, Ted Shred and the Dandy Warhols... playing beats is as important to me as art.
Well I actually went twice... Once when I was 19. That's when I got lost and then again a decade later last January when I was 29. I didn't get lost that time, but my translator almost had his head chopped off by the chief's sister. Watch the preview here.
Brutal anal sex
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Clean Pro Gutter Cleaning Santa Rosa
Do the really smart thing — Let a Pro deal with those stopped up gutters!
Rain gutter cleaning is a messy project, but someone has to make it happen, and that company ought to be Clean Pro Gutter Cleaning(tm) . There are a lot of people who prefer to do things on their own and this is good, but gutter cleaning isn't precisely simple and it ought to just be done by the specialists.
When you hire an expert gutter cleaning service to take care of your cleaning, they will make sure your rain gutters are working properly and explain any concerns. This can save you a great deal of cash.
Santa Rosa (Spanish for "Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and Redwood Coast. It is the fifth most populous city in the Bay Area after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont; and the 25th most populous city in California. == History == === Early history === Before the arrival of Europeans, what became known as the Santa Rosa Plain was occupied by a strong and populous tribe of Pomo natives known as the Bitakomtara.
Belding Woods, Bennett Valley, Casa Del Sol Office, Chris Brown, Coffey Park, Colgan Creek Park, Earle Street & South A Street Neighborhood, East Petaluma, Fountaingrove, Four Corners, Fulton, Galvin Park, Grossman's Noshery & Bar, Harry Floyd Terrace, Hilltop Bayview


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Trade Pilgrimage Routes of North-Western Ghana
Ghana Museums and Monuments Board Government of the Republic of Ghana
The Tentative Lists of States Parties are published by the World Heritage Centre at its website and/or in working documents in order to ensure transparency, access to information and to facilitate harmonization of Tentative Lists at regional and thematic levels.
The sole responsibility for the content of each Tentative List lies with the State Party concerned. The publication of the Tentative Lists does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the World Heritage Committee or of the World Heritage Centre or of the Secretariat of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its boundaries.
Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party
The introduction of the camel in the 1st century AD by the Arab traders facilitated trade between North Africa and the Savannah belt. Peace, tranquility and prosperty in the area gave rise to emprires such as Ghana, Mali and Songhai. Invariably almost all the Arab traders were muslims who were bent on converting the people of the Sahara to Islam. As majority of the converts traded with their southern neighbours, they also tried to convert them as well. HISTORICAL BACKGROND OF THE MOSQUES The Sudanic style mosques in the north of Ghana are historical evidence of the Islamic diaspora that followed the rise of Sudanese states and mark the trade routes of the muslim Dyula traders who migrated southwards from Djenne across the savannah towards the gold and kola producting arears in the rainforests of southern Ghana. Following the Moroccan invasion of Songhai in 1591, and the sacking of Timbuktu and Gao, battalions of Mande warriors followed traders southwards. They conquered the indigenous people in the north-west among whom the Djula had been trading peacefully and established their rule. This penetration of Neo-Sudanese influence led to the formation of Islamic states such as Wala, Dagbong, Gonja and Mamprugu. Of these states the Sudanic style mosques are mostly concentrated in the Wala and Gonja states as these lay directly on the western routes used by the Mande warriors, Missionaries and traders. BUILDING TECHNIQUES OF MOSQUES OF GHANA The mosques are built of sun-dried mud bricks and have massive mud columns supporting flat roofs which consist of mud on frame works of bush poles. Short lengths of bush poles are buried into buttresses and left jutting out, and these help to give these mosques their characteristic appearance. Traditionally, the flat mud roofs are well made impervious by a mixture of cow-dung and laterite soil well rammed and provided with gentle slopes to drain off rain water. Deep slopes are provided for fast drainage of water from the roof. This type of structures obviously need constant attention to keep them in good state. To save these ancient examples of a unique architectural style from total disappearance, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board has been making tremendous efforts through comprehensive maintenance and restoration programmes. TYPOLOGY The Islamic architectural style introduced into the country are of two types: Sudanic and the Djenne Types. SUDANIC TYPE: This has a timber frame structure supporting a flat roof of mud construction. It has a series of buttresses with pinnacles projecting above the parapet, and usually has two pointed towers. One of these towers is over the 'MIHRAB' which always faces the east (or Mecca) as is the case with all mosques. The tower contains the 'HALUWA' (a small room for meditation), and access to it is usually by means of steps leading from the interior of the mosque to the roof. Generally the Sudanic style mosque have bush pole re-inforcements which also serve as scaffolding during the building operation. Above the entrance lintels are triangular recesses, forming decorative features. In some places, the area surrounding the mosque is usually reserved for burial and the graves are marked by rocks. Sheep-skins and woven mats serve as pews or praying mats in the mosques. These are either rolled up or left spread in the mosque aÎter each prayer session. A receptacle is usually kept in the mosque to hold water for ablution. An example of the Sudanic style mosque is the one at Larabanga (described in detail later in this paper). DJENNE TYPE: The mosque at Wuriyanga near GARU in the Bawku district is an example of this architectural style. It is rectangular on plan and has no buttresses. Its' walls are load bearing with a flat mud roof surrounded by a parapet. There is only one tower which is over the 'MIHRAB', the HALUWA is in this tower and access to it is from the roof. The epitome of this type of Islamic architecture can be found in Djenne in the state of Mali, further north of Ghana.


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iPad 2: one month on
We've lived with the iPad 2. Do we still think it's the best tablet of them all?
It's possible to both love and hate something at the same time.
Cats for example. You love them because they're cuddly and cute, but you hate them because they urinate on the carpet, claw your curtains and puke on your doorstep.
The iPad 2 is a bit like that. It bestows you with the three p's - power, pleasure and prestige - whilst simultaneously holding back the features that could have made it the best consumer electronics product of all time.
So one month (and a bit) after the UK launch of the iPad 2, what's our long term verdict?
There's no doubt that the iPad 2 is a darn sight nicer than the original model. It's slimmer, it's lighter, it's got more grunt and it's got two, albeit pathetically mediocre, cameras.
With regards to those slight cosmetic changes, it's easy to overlook them. But it's only when you've been using iPad 2 for a while and then pick up an original model that you realise just how bulky and heavy the sodding thing is.
A lot of iPad 2 apps require you to be able to wield the device in one hand, something that's a lot more difficult to do with the original model – especially if you're trying to support it primarily with your thumb (which you are forced to do when holding it with the screen facing downwards).
So that's a big thumbs up for the aesthetic and ergonomic changes – on this score, we wouldn't swap iPad 2 even for 2 iPad 1s.
Let us also pay tribute to the increase in power of iPad 2 with its dual-core processor. Launching and running apps is a lot smoother now. Even though you're only saving fractions of a second at a time, the end user experience just feels a lot more slick.
Apps like Garage Band can be rather clunky on the first iPad, while they run smooth as you like on iPad 2.
And thirdly, there's those cameras. Don't get us wrong, we're very grateful for them. Cameras open up a whole new avenue for developers to, er, develop in. There are already boat loads of cool camera-related apps out there, from the throw-away fun of PocketBooth to the genuinely useful Word Lens.
However, a 0.7MP rear-facing camera. Really, Apple? Really? It's just an atrocious effort, even more so when you consider there's an Android tablet floating around out there (somewhere) with an 8MP camera.
Certainly, resolution isn't the be-all and end-all, but it's still quite important, right?
The iPad 2 is, in some ways, able to capture some decent images – but only when viewing on the device's own display. Stick those pictures up on a TV, a computer monitor or print them out and they're immediately exposed.
We don't want to use the iPad to take our high-res holiday snaps, but how easy would it have been to put a slightly better sensor in there?
Personally, I've never been much of a hardcore gamer. A casual one certainly, but my short attention span means I rarely complete a game on any platform.
This makes the iPad 2 the perfect games console for me. It's just brilliant.
The touchscreen interface forces games developers to make their titles easy to pick up and play. It can also make you feel a lot more engaged as you're interacting directly with the game itself. Add that to a raft of excellent games, many free, many others reasonably priced, and there you've got something to fill those 5 minute ad breaks when watching telly.
Gaming on the iPad was excellent. But gaming on the iPad 2 is even better.
iPad 2 vs Android
And finally, we come to the battle between iPad 2 and the Android 3.0 tablets of this world. You may not have ever seen one, but they are out there, somewhere - honestly.
We've played with lots of them, and even though they're all slightly flawed in their own unique ways, we've liked them all. Honeycomb is a fantastic OS.
It may not quite have the polish of iOS 4.3, but what it does do is expose your inability to make the iPad 2 your own, unique device.
That's the thing with our iPad, we don't really feel that it's ours - it's Steve's.
If we're going to pay £400 plus for a tablet, we want it to be definitively ours. We want to be able to customise it beyond recognition. We want to be able to install all manner of different live wallpapers, different keyboards, UI modifications etc. And we want it to perform seamlessly no matter how many of these modifications we've made.
We don't want to be told what we can and can't do with it, and what media formats we can and can't play.
So in conclusion, after one month with it, we really hate the iPad 2. We hate it because it imposes limitations on you. It shackles you to iTunes. It's got a crap camera. But most of all we hate it because we just can't help loving it so much.
It's the drunk, wife-beating husband of our gadget collection. It loves us and provides for us, while being totally uncompromising in its abusive 'our way or the highway' attitude towards us.
There's absolutely no question that the iPad 2 is the most complete, functional and usable tablet currently on the market. We've tested them all, and it's simply the best. It may be only a small step forward from the original model, but it's still a decent step in the right direction.
At some point, the enormous potential of Android 3.0 is going to bear fruit. But until then, we're just going to continue to allow our cute little kitty to leave dead mice in strange places, leave muddy pawprints on our clean bed sheets and make bad things happen in our noses.
It's worth it because he's just so awesome to have around.
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By Craig Hale


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Lighter Surface Colors- Cooler World
High Albedo reflects sunlight Albedo is simply the "whiteness" of a surface; its ability to reflect light energy. Surface reflectivity is measured in values between Zero and One- Zero indicates complete black and one means totally white. When evaluating a surface, assigning it a value